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Derecho from the Midwest to the Mid-South

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with SPC storm reports plotted in red [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed a large Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) which produced a long-lived path of large hail and damaging winds from eastern Nebraska to western Tennessee on 28 June 2018. The length and duration of damaging wind events (SPC storm reports) qualified this event as a derecho.

The corresponding GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (below) revealed cold cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures that occasionally reached -80ºC (violet enhancement).

GOES-16 "Clean" Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images, with SPC storm reports plotted in cyan [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images, with SPC storm reports plotted in cyan [click to play MP4 animation]

A closer look at the MCS using 375-meter resolution Suomi NPP VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images (below) showed cloud-top gravity waves on the 1844 UTC image, propagating radially outward from the primary area of overshooting tops; cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures were as cold as -86ºC (violet enhancement).

Suomi NPP VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images, with SPC storm reports plotted during the 3 hours preceding the 1844 UTC image [click to enlarge]

Suomi NPP VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images, with plots of SPC storm reports during the 3 hours preceding the 1844 UTC image [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-16, Severe convection, Suomi NPP, VIIRS